S. A. Wickramasinghe

Sugiswara Abeywardena Wickramasinghe (13 April 1900 – 25 August 1981) was the founder of the Communist Party of Sri Lanka.[1] He was the first Leftist to be elected to Ceylon State Council in 1931. He gave up all his wealth and comforts for the sake of downtrodden. He is considered one of the leading political figures in the twentieth century of Sri Lanka.

Hon.
S. A. Wickramasinghe
Member of the Ceylon Parliament
for Akuressa
In office
1956–1977
Preceded byDoreen Young Wickremasinghe
Succeeded byDayananda Wickremasinghe
Member of the State Council of Ceylon
for Morawka
In office
1931–1935
Succeeded byR. C. Kannangara
In office
1946–1947
Preceded byR. C. Kannangara
Personal details
Born(1900-05-13)13 May 1900
Athuraliya, Matara District, Sri Lanka
Died25 August 1981(1981-08-25) (aged 81)
Colombo
Political partyCommunist Party of Sri Lanka
SpouseDoreen Young Wickremasinghe
Alma materMahinda College Galle
Ananda College Colombo
Ceylon Medical College
ProfessionPolitician and medical doctor

Early life and education

S. A. Wickramasinghe was born in Nasnaranketiya Walawwa, Athuraliya in the Matara district of then British Ceylon in 1900. He received his primary education at Mahinda College, Galle, where he joined engaged in social services and Buddhist activities. He later entered Ananda College, Colombo.

Wickramasinghe pursued his higher studies in medicine at the Ceylon Medical College, and proceeded to the United Kingdom for his post-graduate studies.

In England, he participated on activism with the League Against Imperialism and the British Communist Party. During this time he met fellow Ceylonese progressives and the future leaders of the Left movement such as N. M. Perera, Colvin R. de Silva and Leslie Goonewardene, who were also studying in London and fellow-students of Marxism.

Early activism

On his way back to Ceylon, S. A. Wickramasinghe travelled to India to meet members of the Indian National Congress as well as the Communist Party of India. He was immediately arrested by British police in Bombay but managed to make contact with figures such as Jawaharlal Nehru and Rabindranath Tagore.[2]

After returning to Sri Lanka, he co-founded the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and also served as the General Manager of Buddhist Theosophical Society schools in Sri Lanka. A medical practitioner by profession, he started working as a doctor after his post-graduate studies and joined the Government Service and started practising in his native Matara district.

Wickramasinghe played a leading role in the Suriya Mal Movement. He also organised relief for peasants during the Malaria epidemic and floods that plagued Sri Lanka in 1934 and 1935.

Founding of Communist Party of Ceylon

In 1941, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union, Wickramasinghe led the faction who argued that World War 2 was not an inter-imperialist war but a war against fascism. For their defence of Stalin and the Soviet Union, Wickramasinghe and his comrades were expelled by the Trotskyites in the LSSP.

Wickramasinghe's faction, which included Pieter Keuneman, M. G. Mendis, and A. Vaidialingam formed the United Socialist Party, which became the Communist Party of Ceylon in 1943.

Personal life

Wickramasinghe was married to Doreen Young, a British leftist who later became a prominent Communist politician and a Member of Parliament in Sri Lanka. She and Wickremasinghe had two children.

Publications
  • The Gal Oya Project (1951)[3]
  • The Way Ahead

Electoral history
Electoral history of S. A. Wickramasinghe
Election Constituency Party Votes Result
1931 state councilMorawakaElected
1936 state councilMorawakaNot elected
1946 state council byMorawakaElected
1950 parliamentary byColombo CentralCommunist Party of Ceylon12,501Not elected
1952 parliamentaryHakmanaCommunist Party of Ceylon12,601Not elected
1956 parliamentaryAkuressaCommunist Party of Ceylon20,867Elected
1960 March parliamentaryAkuressaCommunist Party of Ceylon13,191Elected
1960 July parliamentaryAkuressaCommunist Party of Ceylon12,488Elected
1965 parliamentaryAkuressaCommunist Party of Ceylon16,096Elected
1970 parliamentaryAkuressaCommunist Party of Ceylon20,007Elected
1977 parliamentaryAkuressaCommunist Party of Sri Lanka16,436Not elected

See also

References
  1. Founder of the Communist Party, The Sunday Times
  2. "Dr. Wickramasinghe - a true patriot and an internationalist". Archives.dailynews.lk. Retrieved 2022-05-04.
  3. "The Ceylon Economist 1951.06 (1.4) - நூலகம்" (in Tamil). Noolaham.org. Retrieved 2022-05-04.
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